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Chaosium Digest Volume 12 Number 07
Chaosium Digest Volume 12, Number 7
Date: Sunday, December 17, 1995
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Mythos Update (Eric Rowe) MYTHOS
X-Cthulhu (Rowe & Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU
Nephilim Comics (Shannon Appel) NEPHILIM
Editor's Note:
Welcome to an issue full of info on sources for Nephilim & Call of
Cthulhu. Also, just below, you'll find a tad of information on Mythos,
the Call of Cthulhu card game which is due out just a few short months
from now.
As a quick note, I've heard that Chaosiana, Danny Bourne's Chaosium
fanzine, is now at the printers. It's supposed to be released some
time shortly after the new year. It includes articles by Mark
Morrison, Penny Love, Finula McCaul, and myself on a variety of
Chaosium games.
Shannon
BOOKS TO LOOK FOR
Gary Libby was kind enough to point out a book I missed in my BOOKS TO
LOOK FOR section last week.
* Call of Cthulhu - _Lovecraft's Legacy_ (TPB reprint of the excellent
Cthulhu collection from 1990), edited by Robert E. Weinberg & Martin
H. Greenberg, pub. by Tor, APR96
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
TSOU Archives
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/chaosium/cthulhu/tsou/
The archives of The Shadow Over Usenet (TSOU) are now available for
FTP. These archives contain discussion of Lovecraft's fiction,
starting with his first juvenile writings, and moving slowly through
all of his works. You can catch the regular, on-going TSOU discussion
in alt.horror.cthulhu.
--------------------
From: Eric Rowe <rowe@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Mythos Update
System Mythos
MYTHOS UPDATE:
Mythos: The Collectible Card Game of Lovecraftian Horror continues to
remain on schedule for a rising in late March. As this will be an
extremely limited edition, distributors are being asked to place their
orders this week. So, don't forget to let your local retailer know you
are interested as soon as possible, or their distributor may not order
enough.
In the game, players will take the role of an investigator, trying to
complete stories (adventures) before going insane; all the while
attempting to slow down their opponent or just drive them mad. The
play rules are much simpler than many of the current CCGs on the
market, but deck construction and play strategies can become very
complex. You can even tailor your deck to match your favorite H.P.L.
story.
[I've been helping out on the playtest of Mythos, and definitely give
it two thumbs up. The rules are pleasantly different than all the
other CCGs out there, and fit the game just perfectly. Hopefully, I'll
be doing a preview of the game sometime before release, but in the
meantime, definitely let your retailers know you're interested, so
they can order enough! -shannon (whose last deck was designed around
"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward")]
--------------------
From: Eric Rowe <rowe@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU> & Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: X-Cthulhu
System: Call of Cthulhu
X-CTHULHU:
The television program, The X-Files, is an excellent source of ideas
for the Call of Cthulhu Game (and the Nephilim game as well). To
assist Keepers who would like to introduce plots or characters from
the show I've written up the two leads, agents Fox Mulder and Dana
Scully, and a set of story ideas. Most of the material for them is
taken from the highly recommended book by Brian Lowry, _The Truth is
Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files._ It is a must for anyone
planning to run a campaign X-File style.
FOX "SPOOKY" MULDER: Age 34, Special Agent for the F.B.I
"I'm trying to decide which lie to believe."
STR 11 SIZ 13 CON 13 INT 17 POW 15
DEX 11 APP 11 EDU 17 SAN 63 HP 13
Damage Bonus: +0
Weapons: Smith and Wesson 1056, 9mm, 1d10
Notable Skills: Anthropology 45%, Archaeology 40%, Astronomy 62%,
Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Handgun 65%, Hide 50%, Law 75%, Library Use 80%,
Listen 66%, Locksmith 33%, Occult 88%, Psychoanalysis 45%, Psychology
92%, Sneak 58%, Spot Hidden 78%, Track 46%
Phobias: Fear of Fire
Description: Agent number JTT047101111, 6 ft., 170 lbs, Brown Hair,
Green Eyes, Born 10/13/61 in Chilmark MA. Distinguishing mark is a
mole on his right cheek. Father dead, mother alive and residing in
Martha's Vineyard, MA. One sibling, Samantha, disappeared 11/27/71.
History: Mulder attended Oxford where he earned an A.B. in Psychology.
He then directly entered Quantico Academy for F.B.I. training. Upon
graduation, he was assigned to the Violent Crimes unit. During this
time, Mulder become convinced his sister was abducted by aliens and
got a transfer to the X-Files section. When the F.B.I. began to fear
that Mulder's work was getting out of control, Dana Scully was
assigned to report on him; the show starts from there.
DANA SCULLY: Age 31, Special Agent for the F.B.I
"I could use some caffeine."
STR 9 SIZ 10 CON 12 INT 17 POW 13
DEX 12 APP 13 EDU 20 SAN 61 HP 11
Damage Bonus: +0
Weapons: Smith and Wesson 1056, 9mm, 1d10
Notable Skills: Astronomy 70%, Biology 74%, Chemistry 90%, Cthulhu
Mythos 1%, First Aid 85%, Handgun 89%, Law 74%, Library Use 90%,
Listen 69%, Medicine 94%, Pharmacy 86%, Physics 92%, Sneak 65%, Spot
Hidden 70%
Description: Agent number 2317-616, 5 ft. 3 in., wt. unknown, Red
Hair, Green Eyes, Born 2/23/64. Father dead, mother living in
Baltimore MD. Three siblings, elder brother William, younger brother
Charles and older sister Melissa (deceased).
History: Scully attended the University of Maryland and took a B.S. in
Physics. She then went on to earn a medical degree and had a residency
in forensic pathology. She taught for two years at the Quantico
Academy before being assigned to 'watch' agent Fox Mulder.
STORY IDEAS:
With two years worth of shows to call on, keepers should easily be
able to generate lots of ideas for X-Files campaign. Included here are
some rough story ideas for Call of Cthulhu, based upon various X-Files
episodes. These story ideas assume that the PCs are indeed part of
some official government organization (ie the FBI), and thus would be
called in for such jobs. If this is inappropriate for the campaign,
you could have the PCs offering freelance help to such an organization
Perhaps they might even be freelance help for Mulder & Scully, like
the Lone Gunmen.
* "Ice" (original story by Glen Morgan & James Wong) - The PC
investigators are sent to the Artic Ice Core Project base (in
Alaska) to discover what caused the group's members to kill each
other. Unknown to the PCs, the AICP personel inadvertantly unearthed
a malevolent parasite, which possessed the members of the expedition
one-by-one, and caused them to engage in murderous rampages.
When the PCs arrive, they may be able to discover from various
diaries and journals the true fates of the expedition, but if not,
they will soon be at the mercy of the parasitical creature
themselves. Once the investigators begin to realize what happened,
the keeper should crank up the paranoia level. Already, one of their
number might be possessed. Which investigator has the parasite
waiting behind his eyes, cautiously preparing for an opportunity to
slay the investigators?
Once the investigators have dealt with the initial menace, they may
wish to investigate the situation closer. Where exactly did the
parasite come from? Perhaps it was a secret weapon of the Elder
Things, used in their genocidal race against the shoggoths,
millenium ago? What repercussions could the parasite's origin have?
* "Dod Kalm" (original story by Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa) - The PCs
are asked to investigate an abandoned boat near Norway, where,
strangely enough, the entire crew has died of premature aging. If
they aren't careful, the PCs will fall victim to the same fate as
the original crewmembers, because the water in the boat has been
contaminated, and slowly sucks away the life force of those who
drink it. This adventure works best if the keeper manages to strand
the PCs on the boat, perhaps by a natural disaster, or alternatively
by a malovelent force, thus forcing them to use the ship's supplies.
The keeper is totally free to determine what is the cause of the
water's contamination. Perhaps some Cthulhoid creature lies near
death nearby, and it is slowly rejuvenating itself? Perhaps the crew
members unearthed an artifact in Norway, and it has contaminated the
entire boat? Perhaps one of the members of the crew was a human
cultist, and his spells got out of hand? The possibilities are many,
but the players must move quickly and cunningly once they are
stranded on the ship, or they may not be able to discover the source
of their problems quickly enough to do any good.
* "F. Emasculata" (original story by Howard Gordon & Chris Carter) -
The story is a familiar one. The PC investigators are called in to a
Federal prison after two prisoners escape carrying a deadly disease.
When the investigators get to the scene they will find that a very
deadly plague is at epidemic levels within the prison. Will the
investigators be able to recover the escaped prisoners before they
spread the epidemic to the rest of the state, perhaps the country?
Afterwards, the investigators may wish to determine the source of
the plague. Was it an experiment by humans to find some ultimate
weapon? If so, was its intended target other humans or some Elder
race? Perhaps, it was the work of an independent race (ie the
mi-go), trying to come up with a weapon against the entire human
race? If so, what other plans might they be hatching?
Nephilim game masters should also be able to find many story ideas in
the X-Files. This is especially true of the government conspiracy and
alien episodes. Is the government conspiracy related to one of the
more familiar Nephilim organizations? What reasons does it have for
trying to surpress information on supernatural (Nephilim) activity?
Do the aliens really exist? What relation do they have to the
Nephilim? The Star Arcana? What are the results of the Alien-human
hybrids? Could these be another way that humans are trying to awaken
their ka?
OTHER RESOURCES:
If you're interested in incorporating more of the X-Files mythos into
your Call of Cthulhu game, there are a number of resources available
that will make the task easier. _The Truth is Out There: An Official
Guide to the X-Files_ has already been mentioned; it gives information
on all of the characters as well as a run down on all of the first and
second season episodes. Three books of fiction have also been
produced: _Goblins_, by Charles Grant, _Whirlwind_, by Charles Grant,
and _Ground Zero_, by Kevin J. Anderson. They can be used to provide
even more story ideas. There is also an X-Files comic [which is
discussed further in the following article on Nephilim comics]. Shadis
#14 contains a 10 page X-Files articles; it's mainly full of
background information, but there is about half a page of gaming notes
on the X-Files. Finally, Shadis #18.5 has a 17 page article on
converting television shows, movies, comics and books into RPG games.
It uses X-Files as its running example.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: Nephilim Comics
System: Nephilim
Over the last few years, a number of comics have been released which
are full of good story ideas for the Nephilim game. Here, I have
included some notes and reviews of three of them.
THE INVISIBLES
written by Grant Morrison
published by DC: Vertigo
To put it mildly, the Invisibles is strange. It tells the story of a
cell of the Invisibles, a quasi-anarchistic organization, and their
battle against another equally shady organization, which seems to pull
the strings of power in the world. Standard enough fare. But, the
Invisibles goes far, far behind that. The author, Morrison, constantly
touches upon the esoterica of the world, drawing it into his
conspiracies, building connections between everything. The first 17
issues have included stories about: magical initiations (#2-4), Et in
Arcadia Ego, Sade, the Head of John the Babtist and Rennes-Le-Chateau
(#5-8), voodoo (#10), lovecraftian horrors (#1, #11), shamanism
(#13-15) and Jerry Cornelius (more or less, #17-?). It's clear that
all of the ideas that Morrison throws gracefully around could fit well
into a Nephilim campaign. Even better, he's started drawing
enlightening connections between them.
Issue #17 is the newest issue of the Invisibles, and also the start of
a new story line. If you're interested in reading the Invisibles, I'd
suggested trying to start out with either #2-4, or #1. Issues #10-12
are each standalone issues which can be picked up if you want to
decide if you like the style or not.
THE X-FILES
written by Stefan Petrucha
published by Topps
The X-files has already been mentioned this issue as an excellent
source of ideas for CoC games. And truly, it is as full of
supernatural creatures as any Cthulhu campaign. The X-Files comics,
however, have a slightly different feel to them. Thus far, they've
been solely about aliens, government conspiracies and secret
societies. Every weird incident has had rational, scientific
explanations. The first 10 issues have included stories about: The
Fatima Prophecy (#1), government mind-control experiments (#2-3),
alien visitations (#4-6), trepanning (#7), ritual cannibalism (#8-9)
and secret societies (#10-12). The ideas behind nearly every one of
stories would be perfect for a Nephilim campaign; even better, in the
regular issues, the author gives information on all the reference
books he used for his storylines.
Issue #10 is the newest issue of the X-Files. The first six issues are
collected in a nice trade-paperback (ISBN 1-883313-07-4), and that's
where I would suggest for a starting place, although each of the
storylines really stands alone, except for the last one (#10-12).
There's also an X-Files Annual, which includes a new story about the
original Eve of the human race.
SEEKERS: INTO THE MYSTERY
written by JM DeMatteis
published by DC: Vertigo
I really can't say a lot about Seekers, because it's a brand new comic
that just got going a few weeks ago. The hype calls it "The X-Files
meets the Celestine Prophecy", and from the first issue, it's obvious
that Seekers will be a mystical journey. The characters introduced in
#1 seem strong, and I have some faith that the book will be a good
one, in the same Nephilim-esque genre as the ones mentioned above.
Seekers #1 is the only issue currently available.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's
Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views
or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. To submit an article, subscribe or
unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org. The old digests are archived on
ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be
retrieved via FTP. The X-Files is a trademark of the Twentieth Century
Fox Corporation.
